Florida Charter Schools
Obsolete Aim of Maximizing Profits as Fast As Possible Results in More Parasitism and Deeper Attacks on Public Schools and Public Interest
Under the veil of high ideals, nonprofit and for-profit charter schools across the nation have long been violating the public interest in a variety of ways.
One of the most destructive ways is the non-stop siphoning of unthinkable sums of public funds from public schools—schools that are often chronically-underfunded, over-tested, constantly-shamed, and increasingly militarized and surveilled.
This legalized theft usually takes the form of a large or full portion of state and federal per-pupil funds “following” a student to a deregulated charter school governed by non-elected individuals with many business connections. Incidentally, these “per-pupil” funds, contrary to what charter school supporters dogmatically repeat, do not actually “belong” to this or that student. This is a distorted and self-serving way to render a complex social issue like public school funding. It trivializes the deep social significance and nature of societal investments in social programs like education.
Oftentimes, however, additional fleecing of public schools and the public purse takes the form of private charter school operators also seizing different types of local funds approved and raised democratically by local residents for local public purposes. Not only do these residents usually have nothing to do with charter schools, they voluntarily and independently raise such funds for the specific purpose of improving locally-governed public schools they highly value. This public money is not raised to fund private entities like charter schools. The public is not interested in that. It is important to note here that the inability of charter schools to levy taxes is, in fact, one of the many ways that charter schools differ fundamentally from public schools.
Recently, Florida’s legislature passed an antisocial bill that would permit privately-operated charter schools to seize a significant portion of voter-approved local tax dollars designated specifically for improving public schools governed by locally-elected public officials. This means that when a community engages in a democratic and public vote to raise their own local CONTINUE READING: Florida Charter Schools | Dissident Voice